Memoirs written by Janina (Janka) Heszeles,* age 12, native of Lvov, about the Lvov ghetto and the Janowska camp. She wrote these memoirs three weeks after her escape from the Janowska camp, while in hiding in Krakow under the protection of Wanda Janowska, an activist of the Polish underground, later Wanda Wojcik.**
*Janina Hescheles, daughter of the editor of Chwila, a Jewish - Zionist newspaper published in Galicia. Later Dr. Janina Altman, she worked at the Weizmann Institute in Israel.
...
More Info

Memoirs written by Janina (Janka) Heszeles,* age 12, native of Lvov, about the Lvov ghetto and the Janowska camp. She wrote these memoirs three weeks after her escape from the Janowska camp, while in hiding in Krakow under the protection of Wanda Janowska, an activist of the Polish underground, later Wanda Wojcik.**

*Janina Hescheles, daughter of the editor of Chwila, a Jewish - Zionist newspaper published in Galicia. Later Dr. Janina Altman, she worked at the Weizmann Institute in Israel.

** See Collections file No. 6159 for a formal report of the Krakow branch of Zegota (Rada Pomocy Zydowska; RPZ), the Polish underground Council for Aid to Jews, relating to the period from Dec. 1943 through Dec. 1944, covering the underground’s efforts to rescue individuals from the Janowska camp. For an early, uncensored version of the diary, see file 29756 in the Holdings Registry.

The diary is missing pages. Their content can be read in the printed edition of the diary, donated by Nachi Rotenberg, the son of Bela Elster - Rotenerg, on Feb. 18, 2009.The notebook, titled “In the Eyes of a 12-year-old Girl” (Oczma Dwunastoletniej Dziewczyny), was published in 1946 in Krakow by the Krakow Regional Jewish Historical Commission (Wojewodzka Zydowska Komisja Historyczna w Krakowie). This body had received the diary from the Polish underground Council for Aid to Jews (Rada Pomocy Zydom; RPZ). It was edited by Michal - Maksymilian Borwicz, the pen name of Maksymilian Boruchowic, M. Hochberg - Mariansk, and Jozef Wulf. When Janina Altman visited the Ghetto Fighters’ House Archives on 10 March 2010 and 19 April 2012, she testified that there were passages in the original diary that were omitted from the print version (for example, poems she wrote). She added the following details:In the autumn of 1943 she was in the Janowska camp in Lvov. She recited original poetry from memory. To her good fortune, her recitation was heard by Jewish members of the underground: Lucy Cahazanus, who was the block’s Kapo, and Jakubowice [first name not noted], who managed the laundry room, and they reported this to Michal Borwicz. (The two women perished afterwards.) Borwicz at that time was already in Krakow after having spent a year interned in the Janowska camp and had been smuggled out of the camp a short time previous [to these events]: Businessman Mieczyslaw Pioterowski, an underground operative and husband of Miriam - Maria Hochberg, had gone to the furniture factory in Lvov where Janowska inmates were put to work, located Borwicz and arranged for him to leave. By Borwicz’ request - having received information that the camp’s days were numbered - several other people were taken along with him, among them Janina. It was Ziuta Rysinska who had smuggled Janina from Lvov to Krakow. Borwicz collected testimonies and documentary materials written by Jews - and smuggled these out to the leadership of the underground (the ZKN and RPZ) in Warsaw. Breaking out of the Janowska camp wasn’t difficult; the problem was where to go into hiding afterwards. He arranged for families who would hide her. In October 1943, upon her escaping from the camp, she was hidden in Krakow by Wanda Janowska, later Wojcik (per her subsequent marriage to Krakow RPZ head Wladyslaw Wojcik). Wanda was a beautician and received clients by day in her home, while in the evening it became a center of underground activity, mainly forging official documents. There Janina wrote her memoirs three weeks after her escape. In early 1944 an underground member was apprehended who was listed as a resident of Wanda’s apartment, and due to the high risk, Janina was transferred to the Kobelinski family in Krakow. To this day Janina remains in contact with Kazimiera, that family’s daughter. Then in the summer of 1944 she was transferred to an orphanage in the Polish village of Poronin, near Zakopane. The orphanage was initially situated in Warsaw, but due to the Polish uprising of late summer 1944, the children and staff were evacuated to Poronin. This orphanage, which also housed Jewish children, was directed by Jadwiga Strzalecka. After the war the orphanage relocated to Zopot, and Janina remained there until 1949. Close